  The Welcome Patch is an almond- shaped island at the intersection of our driveway and Route 9W.  It had been fallow for a while and other than a lovely Japanese Maple it sported lots of weeds.  In late April,  I dug it up and discovered good,  easy soil with lots of resident earthworms.
 As everywhere else in the garden,  lots and lots of stones and rocks are harvested whenever the ground is dug up.  Also,  when it rains,  more stones surface.  I now piles stones and rocks next to whatever bed I'm working in to motivat myself by the amount of rock removed.
 Sometime,  I'll use the rock piles to decorative effect somewhere else.  After adding a good deal of peat moss and some cow manure I proceeded to plant lots of stuff for fast effect.  We wanted it to look its best for the monastery centennial in mid- May.  I've added some plants to it since and it has come into its own as a colorful feature to greet people on their way in and out of our home.
 Planted this season in the Welcome Patch:  -  2 Azaleas ( 1 Azalea Girard's Hot Shot)  -  Portulacas (
mixed colors,  double flowers)  -  Marigolds ( with disco- related varietals names.
 -  Petunias ( Plum Madness"  " Dreams Red"  "
Summer Madness"  -  Goldstrum Black- Eyed- Susan ( Rudbeckia fulgida "
Goldstrum"  -  Shasta Daisies -  Russian Sage ( Perovskia atriplicifolia " Superba"
 silvery foliage,  blue flowers on airy,  wispy stems)  Caraonna Sage ( Salvia nemorosa " Caradonna"
 violet flowers on purple stems)  and another blue flower salvia -  Radican Creeping Euonymus ( Euonymus fortunei " Radicans"  -
 Ground- cover conifer& nbsp;  ( Juniper Procumbens Nana)  YAR received an extra length of garden hose and has been watering the bed whenever needed.
 The regular watering realy helped.
